The service was private, attended by family, teammates, and close friends. The world had learned only days before of Jota’s tragic death in a sudden car crash, leaving behind his wife and three children. He was just 28.
But no one expected the presence of Adele and Ed Sheeran, who flew in quietly the night before. The pair had prepared a reworked version of “Photograph”, blending it with lines from Adele’s unreleased ballad “Hold Me Close Again.”
“He was more than a footballer,” Ed whispered before the song.
“To my little girl, he was a superhero in cleats.”
As the first chords echoed through the marble arches of the church, Adele closed her eyes and began:
“We keep this love in a photograph…”
Then Ed joined, his voice roughened by grief:
As the two harmonized, the camera caught a quiet, heartbreaking moment: Ed’s 8-year-old daughter Lyra sobbing into her mother’s arms, clutching a signed Jota jersey. She had met the footballer just months earlier and still kept a photo of him in her schoolbag.
“She told me he was the reason she started playing football,” Ed later said.
“And when he passed, she cried harder than I’ve ever seen her cry.”
The final verse was sung a cappella, as Adele whispered the last line:
The church fell silent. No applause. Just the quiet sound of tissue crumpling, sniffles echoing against stone.
